HOLIBUT. 151 



followed only when the spring is well advanced and the niglits 

 are clear; at which time the fish are discovered as they lie 

 at the bottom, even where the water is deep; but as summer 

 advances the search is given up, because, as this fish becomes 

 very fat, the heat of the weather would prevent its flesh from 

 being properly dried in the manner they are accustomed to 

 pre^Dare it. Each portion of this dried fish has its separate 

 name among the people, of whose subsistence, as well as of 

 their commerce, it forms a considerable part. The skin, and 

 even the entrails are also regarded as of value by a people 

 who, from the scarcity or cost of other materials are led to 

 employ these parts for purposes which in more favoured regions 

 were better answered by other means. Perhaps there is no 

 portion of the ocean in which the Holibut is more abundant 

 than on the banks of Newfoundland, and it is there we have 

 heard of its being taken of much larger bulk than is usual 

 elsewhere; perhaps from the abundance of congenial food, for 

 which its appetite is represented as being very keen, as its power 

 of swallowing is also great; so that it is able to gulp down fishes 

 of considerable size, as well as crabs and shellfish. It spawns 

 in the S2>ring. 



The Holibut is by fi^r the largest of the Flatfishes ; so that 

 in some rare instances it seems scarcely an exaggeration in 

 Lacepede to compare it in size with a whale; especially if we 

 are to suppose the comparison to be made with reference to 

 other species of the same family. The largest I have seen 

 weighed no more than one hundred and twenty-four pounds; 

 but Pennant mentions an example that weighed three hundred 

 pounds, and one which was caught near the Isle of Man in 

 April, 1828, measured seven feet and six inches in length, with 

 the breadth of three feet and six inches, and in weight was 

 three hundred and twenty pounds. This, however, is little 

 more than half the weight of one that is reported to have been 

 taken in Iceland; but which again must have been considerably 

 less than an example mentioned by Olafson, which measured 

 but little short of twenty feet in length. I have also been 

 informed by an officer of the navy that he was present at the 

 capture, on the banks of Newfoundland, of a Holibut which 

 greatly exceeded in size even the example mentioned by 

 Olafson. 



